WATCH: ATROPA Short Sci Fi Film

Another smart Sci-Fi short film, Directed by Eli Sasich’s, ATROPA is a deep space mystery encounter story you'll only want to see more of - some top notch effect work, great atmosphere, well worth a look and a Vimeo STaff Pick

https://vimeo.com/77761436

The Best Photo I've Ever Taken

 March 2015 Alcatraz State Penitentiary

The trick with this shot was to get in first before the first group of tourists made their way up the main walkway. When you get off the ferry you're supposed to listen to the orientation talk by the park warden on the main forecourt. I decided that capturing the best shot I ever wanted to take was far more important to me and a once in a lifetime opportunity. By ignoring that protocol and in order to get into the prison I made my way up the main walkway with some of the employees that had came in on the same ferry. I headed up to the main cell block and admin building which is the quickest way in. Going on through the main entrance and pretty much straight on I was able to get onto Broadway, the main cell row. I can't tell you how awe inspiring it is to stand in one of Americas most notorious buildings on your own with not another soul in sight, a place that has seen some of Americas most wanted felons locked up, you just soak up so much history standing there looking down the row of steel bars it is incredibly eerie. I had a good 10 minutes to myself before the first group came in because they all wait in line for the audio tour to get their headsets. This 10 minutes gave me a super rare opportunity to capture quite possibly the best photograph I have ever taken.

You can buy a poster of this shot here from zazzle in colour and black and white
 

Stormtrooper Replica Helmet - A Man Cave Must Have!

If like me you're a child of the 70's, (oh god that make's me sound bloody ancient) and somewhere in the vast depths of space in a galaxy far far away you were transported to a realm which completely transformed your life then you'll no doubt sympathize with the same fuzzy feeling I get every time the word Star Wars is mentioned.

My latest purchase has been a lifelong one since I was seven years old, I've always wanted to own a 1.1 scale replica of an Imperial Storm Trooper helmet. Online searches put the price for an official Andrew Ainsworth replica at well over $450 for a standard helmet and $760 for a hero version, (Ainsworth if you remember won the court case against Lucasfilm to retain the right to reproduce the helmets from original molds he and his team had created). The big no, no for me is paying a stupid amount of money for a plastic helmet that I can buy elsewhere for a much reduced cost. My other internet searches didn't fare much better and the current 6 month wait for the brand new (and impressive) officially licensed ONOVOS ANH (A New Hope) design helmet was just too long a wait for me. Frequent visits to the RPF (Replica Prop Forum) where some extremely passionate and talented fans,cosplayers and prop builders build their own also seeded some additional doubt, namely my temptation to buy one on Ebay (don't buy one on Ebay!).

Needless to say there are some very critical opinions and suggestions supported by shouts to avoid anything but proper 501st Legion approved helm makers, all making the decision even harder. Apparently it's an unwritten law of etiquette that you don't sell 'recasts' of other peoples work be it an Iron Man helmet or a Cyberman helmet or a Barberella cod piece. However, as much as there is a 'rule' by 501st cosplayers that they can't actively promote or sell Stormtrooper armor a PM to one of the guys active on the RPF will probably set you straight but alas I'm merely speculating. All of this is further compounded by the fact that although the offer is there you don't actually know who still makes them or not and the 'approved' list you'll find has a lengthy turnaround time, not to mention shipping, insurance and customs to factor in if you're an overseas buyer residing in Europe.

There's a whole new conversation to be had about which helmet you buy too, Hero Helmets are different to stunt helmets ANH helmets are different to ESB and ROJ helmets, the grey and black nasal frowns have a different number of teeth, the grey tear panels are different and the very slight bump on the right hand eye lower eyelid tells you which mold and which variant (ANH) you have. OMG it could drive you absolutely geek crazy.

For me I'm not overly interested in passing some convoluted checklist to the extent I want to join the 501st as a cosplayer - I just want a decent enough helmet as a display piece. what strikes me as kind of weird is that in order to join as a stormtrooper cosplayer you have abide by uniform rules for an organisation that isn't actually licensed or official in the first place. I have absolutely nothing against cosplayers, the 501st or the guys that scratch build their armor, far from it, these guys have more passion and dedication than I could possibly imagine. For me its a personal thing, I want to own something that resonates with people my age, that underlines my interest and passion in a trilogy of films that coloured my life.

I think for the most part its also about ownership of a design that I've loved for 40 years, my absolute favorite from any aspect of the films is the Stormtrooper, the ice white armor clad soldiers of the galactic Empire.

So here it is in all its glory a replica Imperial Stormtrooper  'Stunt Version' helmet as created and sold by New Image 58 props at a much more comfortable cost of $257. I opted for the fibre glass version because its primarily for display and the wait was just over two weeks. The box was sent tracked and insured and the helmet was very well packed with plenty of bubblewrap.

Was it worth it? - for the satisfaction of owning it as a display piece, yes, absolutely and I couldn't be happier, is it a perfect replica?, no absolutely not, there are aspects of the helmet that probably need a bit more love, namely the painted frown, the mouth area and the green lenses are pretty flimsy and internally the hot glue application was a bit 'mashed on' - the helmet also needs to be turned to the side in order to put it over your head because the diameter is too small and the neck seal could probably be improved but these are relatively small niggles.

The Imperial Stormtrooper Helmet, (stunt version)

WATCH: SINGULARITY [short film] 2015

SINGULARITY [short film] 2015

In the midst of a war between humans and sentient androids, a Delta
Force team must battle a dangerous enemy to rescue the US President.



Directed by Samuel Jorgensen

Produced by Jeremy Pronk

© The Bicycle Monarchy







Web ► thebicyclemonarchy.com/

IMDB ► imdb.com/title/tt3442982/

Kickstarter ► kickstarter.com/projects/jeremyp/singularity-the-short-film

Facebook ►facebook.com/Singularity-The-short-film-573415829490916

WATCH: Sci-Fi movie short 'The Last Man'

For a movie short the production quality is superb, if you're into sci-fi, short stories and badass gear then this one's for you. lets hope we see more from Gavin Rothery.

Latest Project: Custom Star Wars Stickers

Thought I'd have a crack at creating some custom vinyl stickers, the great thing about print on demand services like Diginate.com is that you can pretty much print as many or as little as you need. 

Being the geek that I am I chose to base 3 of the designs on specific Star Wars references, The Thundering Herd ATAT's from Empire Strikes Back, Vaders Death Squadron from Empire Strikes Back and a fictional Delta Unit Special Weapons Squad patch from Star Wars A new Hope.
 

Here's a link if you wanted to buy

STAR WARS : 10 Things You Probably Collected

 10 THINGS YOU PROBABLY COLLECTED

I have vague recollections of my childhood, that is to say I remember key moments, but alarmingly there are large voids I simply cannot remember. I'm hoping this large expanse of mental fatigue is not the onset of dementia but then there are times at home I can forget what I went upstairs for in the space of 12 steps, this is normal right?
We take for granted that our kids have digital devices like phones and tablets and are creating moments of their lives and storing memories on things like Facebook and YouTube, for my generation its carefully navigating the perils of a darkened loft hunting through musty cardboard boxes for frayed photos or scrapbooks. 

1977, I was 7 years old,and now at 45 years of age I stand witness to my own son enthralled at Star Wars, albeit in a more digital format, (even he's grown out of figurines ). These days fads come and go, there's the odd revival here and there but I have to say that Star Wars has outlived everything else I was into as a kid. I still have a boxed Millenium Falcon and numerous figures, and like a complete sucker all those years ago fritted away cash on Episode One dolls of Queen Amidala (still boxed and loftbound) and Darth Maul (also boxed).

But after the crushing disappointment of the prequel trilogy which were at best animated effect driven nonsense Star Wars went away. In fact forme it went away for a long time, then something changed, this year I bought my first Star Wars collectible in over 15 years, a Black Series Sandtrooper figurine, I'm 45 for gods sake and I'm buying toys!!

Here's my own run down of 10 Things the avid Star Wars collector probably bought into. Feel free to comment below if I've missed anything glaringly obvious.

1.) THE ORIGINAL KENNER STAR WARS FIGURES.
The license for Star Wars action figures was offered in 1976 to the Mego Corporation, which was the leading company in action figures in the 1970s. Mego refused the offer and the license was subsequently picked up by Kenner, a subsidiary of General Mills. Vader and Kenobi had those awful vinyl capes ( a mint vinyl cape Jawa is worth $2000) and the lightsabers slid out of the grooved sleeve area and had that really thin pointy bit that always bent. To top it off you could never have enough Stormtroopers. The holy grail of all the figures was the missile firing Boba Fett , which if you had a prototypes in mint condition can easily fetch up to $20,000.

2.) THE ORIGINAL KENNER SPACE CRAFT
It was either or during the late 70's, you either had the Millenium Falcon as your cornerstone vehicle or you had the AT-AT Walker which had that awesome firing mechanism where the laser canons lit up and moved when you pressed the button on the neck area. For Millenium Falcons owners you had the removable smugglers floor, the engine noise button and the central footstand which doubled as a hand grip to 'fly' it around the lounge.

3. THE TOPPS TRADING CARDS

The beauty about these things is that they never really went away but the original trilogy set were the ones that people remember most. The size of a playing card with a blue, red,orange, green or yellow border ( 5 sets in all) and an image from the film, on the reverse side of the card they made up a larger Star Wars image.

Highly coveted among collectors who hunt for full mint, unopened sets and all five sets equates to 330 cards, the more recent Clone Wars and prequel trilogies just aren't the same, however, I defy anyone not to croon over a modern foil or hologram effect card these days.

 

4. THE LUNCH BOX

Star Wars didn't come soon enough for me at school, 1975 and I got stuck lugging a Snoopy flask with soup in it and whatever lunchbox design was current and cheap to buy with Mackeral sandwiches. The Plastic ones were commonplace but all the cool kids, especially in America had these small metal suitcase affairs. The best one you could get was the sandtrooper road block cover. "Move along".

5. THE BEDROOM WALLPAPER

This stuff is currently going for $150 per roll (Ebay), vintage 1978 Star Wars Wallpaper, there was an Empire Strikes back one I remember with a cloud city design but alas, I think for the most part my 1970's and 80's were devoid of such cool bedroom design. Did you have Star Wars Wallpaper as a kid, if so which one?

6. STAR WARS PEZ

Who could ever forget the famous Austrian candy and its famous mechanical pocket dispensers.Why Star  Wars versions never really materialized until 1997 is anyone's guess - I still have an Imperial Stormtrooper unopened, ok so its only about 6 years old but I haven't had the heart to open it. I love the Vader one and the full range blossomed with the extremely limited and hard to find Crystal head versions of Vader, Yoda and C3PO back in 2012.

 

7. DARTH VADER CARRY CASE FOR FIGURES

 If you had one of these on our block you were pretty spoilt, everyone else just chucked their figures into the back of the Millenium Falcon or inside their AT-AT but opening one of these babies was like the scene in Pulp Fiction with the briefcase, the room when quiet and your mouth went dry as you waited to see if your buddy had full racks.

8. THE STAR WARS BED COVER

I can't claim to ever owning one of these, probably need to ask my mum why she denied me the joy of gracing my bed with this amazing woven delight, I mean, look at that blue, as bright as cobalt, that's enough to brighten anyone's morning.

9. THE STAR WARS T-SHIRT

Okay so you don't really collect a t-shirt as such but ownership was enough to declare your love of the science fiction juggernaught in your life at the time, all kinds of variants but lets not forget, it was the cool brush script fonts with the 70's flair that made it pop.

10. STAR WARS MARVEL COMICS

The art was awful, the characters bore no resemblance to their on-screen counterparts yet somehow the illustrated adventures inside kept us coming back for more. I've never really been a fan of these at all simply because the art sucked. Stan Lee was approached by Lucasfilm in 1975 for the comics to co-incide with the film but Stan Lee wanted to see the film finished. The comics ran from issue #1 through to #107 and lasted from 1977 through to 1986 with three annuals. Renowned comic book artist Howard Chaykin (American Flag) had art duties on issues #1 through #10. 

*As a side note there's a really cool 548 page book available on Amazon for the Topps card collectors called Star Wars : The orginal Topps trading Cards

The Secrets To Self Publishing and Indie Development Startups

After much procrastination and absence on my blog, coffee in hand I am awake and back at the keyboard.After completing my first self publishing title to launch on Amazon Kindle I decided to pursue the non fiction route writing about what I know.

I've worked in video-games for over 20 years, Atari, Midway Games Meteor Entertainment and now Plan of Attack, a video games PR agency and its baffling to see that no one appears to helping the little guys much, the startup guys, the breakaway studio startups craving to unleash their pent up creativity with an app or game into the marketplace.
(Prepare for shameless self promotion in next sentence) That's where Front Towards Gamer : Videogames marketing & PR for Indie Startups and Kickstarters was born, more out of the fact that I see the same mistakes being made now that were being made by development teams at Atari and Midway Games several years ago. For the most part development teams don't need to be told what works and what doesn't work because invariably they are made up of people with lots of experience, they also learn quickly in a volatile marketplace like video games what doesn't fly so good because when you flop with something that doesn't work so well it costs $$$$$.

However, there are teams and individuals out there who clearly need some guidance, speaker conferences are good sharing platforms for hints and tips by educated and experienced industry speakers but what of the group of coders who are starting out with little or no backup from a publisher?
Most of the speaking panels at GDC, Develop, Pocket Connects and Nordic Game conferences promote the same tried and tested 'do's and don't' aspects of self publishing, marketing or PR, in fact you'll be hard pressed to see anything radically new offered up by speakers and what they found worked as a best practice way of working in the marketplace. And yet the same mistakes are being made because creative teams are not geared up for talking to the consumer because they are too busy working on the product. This is nobody's fault, developers are passionate about their product, and rightly so,this book is aimed at guiding bedroom coders,startups, and small dev teams through the myriad of issues and potential pitfalls of taking their product to market.

My very good friend and former boss Mark Long, bestselling author of The Silence of Our Friends provided me with a compelling foreword which was the much needed catalyst to self publish this book. Long has fingers in so many pies creatively with apps,books,graphic novels, games and start ups that it's wonder he finds time to sleep. Former CEO of Zombie Studios who developed Blacklight on PS4 and former CEO of Meteor Entertainment who published HAWKEN, the amazing FPS Free to Play Mech game Mark has produced many different forms of transmedia marketing in the course of his career which provides some great insight into spreading the PR and marketing voice of your product to a consumer.

Front Towards Gamer is available to buy on Amazon priced $9.99

Holy Smokes Batman! - The Official Limited Edition Batman Moleskine!

I'm a total sucker for cross promotional partnerships, you know the kind, when two well loved brands combine to deliver something you just gotta have.
Well this happened with Moleskine and DC Comics, Moleskine have just announced a partnership with Warner Bros and DC Comics to release a limited run of Batman Moleskine note books.
Needless to say I immediately pre-ordered one over at Amazon!

They come in two sizes, a pocket size at 192 pages and large size at 240 pages and come in either plain or lined versions.
The covers also feature some truly great two tone artwork and stickers that comic book fans would love.

Available from Amazon and Moleskine from May 5th

Gotta have them all! - the full range of Limited Edition Moleskine Batman notebooks.

If you've seen the keen doodler and artist Kirby Rosanes work then I'm sure this stuff will feel right at home inside a Batman Moleskine, got a creative urge?

San Francisco Heroes, a Roadtrip.

GDC SAN FRANCISCO

Early in March I got the awesome opportunity to visit San Francisco for a week on a business trip to GDC, my first proper trip to the Bay Area where I got boots on the ground and had a good sniff around.
Being a movie fan I thought it would be fun to explore a couple of places where my favorite cult movies had been shot, namely Bullitt, starring the late Steve McQueen and Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood. Using a cool photo technique inspired by the website Dear Photograph where an older photo is merged into the real life setting the original photo was taken I took the following shots.

This shot is on the street corner of Taylor and Clay Street, in the film Bullitt, Steve McQueen parks the Mustang just across from the corner shop and steals a newspaper before going into the store to buy groceries. The fire hydrant, sign post and red cornerbox are still there to this day.

A shot of the actual apartment used by Steve McQueens character Lieutenant Frank Bullitt is literally across the road from the grocery store.

This shot shows the Dodge Charger driven by the hitmen heading West at the corner of Taylor and Union Street as it gets some air.

The 1979 movie Escape From Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood is another of my cult favorites, the movie recounts the infamous June 1962 jail escape by Frank Morris played by Eastwood and 2 inmates. This was by far the coolest place I think I've been to on any of my business trips. I took the early bird booking which leaves in the morning at around 8.45am, it was on a Saturday and I didn't fancy fighting my way through hundreds of other visitors. The trip also gave me a very cool opportunity to dust off my Canon DSLR which I don't use nearly enough.


This shot is taken outside in the exercise yard where Frank talks about acquiring some items for his escape.

The knife attack by inmate 'Wolf' on Frank Morris takes place in the exercise yard here, I've tried to match the shot up exactly by using the steel door as a guide. You'll have to take my word for it that its still there!

Alcatraz all to myself - probably the photo I am most proud of, I got in ahead of the main tour crowd and had a good ten minutes before they showed up to crowd the walkways.

Useful Links: Dear Photograph  Alcatraz Cruises

WARBIRDS: The Aviation Art of Adam Tooby

WARBIRDS: The Aviation Art of Adam Tooby

RRP 29.99

My growing collection of coffee table books just increased by one today, and I have to say its an absolute corker of a book. If you're a fan of combat aircraft, combat paintings or aviation art in general then this is a must buy.

Warbirds: The Aviation art of Adam Tooby is a visually stunning presentation of combat aircraft in a variety of scenarios from World War 1, World War 2, Vietnam and beyond.
The art is created digitally so presents some very clean lines which might not sit well with certain aviation art purists who prefer the more organic and traditional paintings from masters like Robert Taylor. That being said this is still a book to get excited about, the page design is really thought out and on occasion provides extended fold out pages for the larger planes and scenarios. Composition wise all the paintings deliver an adrenaline fuelled visual attack.

Tooby lends his talent to providing Airfix model kit ranges their dynamic box covers, Warbirds is his first book.

 

Live Streamers Get Swatted Live on Video Cam

Swatting is defined in Wikipedia as "the act of tricking an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing a 9-1-1 dispatcher) into dispatching an emergency response based on the false report of an ongoing critical incident. Episodes range from large to small — from the deployment of bomb squads, SWAT units and other police units and the concurrent evacuations of schools and businesses, to a single fabricated police report meant to discredit an individual as a prank or personal vendetta."

Basically it's a more lethal form of knock, knock with a steel battering ram and eight tactical Police officers raiding your home. Its the ultimate troll, or at least that's what certain malevolent internet trolls think it is, the act of getting revenge on someone you envy because of their livestreaming success or simply because you want to mess with their head but primarily it's nothing more than an attempt at boosting ego and getting bragging rights.

On 27 August 2014, YouTube user Jordan Mathewson, known online as Kootra, live streamed a game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Twitch. A viewer called 911 claiming that there was a shooting in the building with hostages. A SWAT team raided the office that Mathewson's gaming company, The Creatures LLC, was operating out of. Mathewson was thrown to the ground and searched as officers searched the room. The events were broadcast live on the internet, until law enforcement set the camera lens-down on Mathewson's desk. Videos of the swatting went viral, gaining over three million views on YouTube and being reported on news programs all over the world.(The YouTube clip below shows that incident)

Above: SWAT raid as caught by livestream cam on Jordan Mathewson aka Kootra.

A 16 year old boy from Ottowa has recently been charged with 60 Swatting offences. One of the alleged incidents was a bomb threat which happened April 30 just before 10:30 a.m. at Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Milton, Ont., west of Toronto. An anonymous 911 caller said he had placed explosives near the school that he was going to detonate — creating eight hours of work for more than 30 officers, and prompting an evacuation and search of the three-storey school.

Another story you may have heard about is 15 year old Paul Horner getting 25 years to Life for swatting, the story was in fact a hoax. A website called National Report reported that a 15-year-old Louisiana teen had been sentenced to 25 years to life when he “swatted” a fellow player who had beaten him repeatedly in Battlefield 4. The story includes sufficient fabricated information to convince casual readers of its authenticity, including a photograph, comments from “Judge Arthur Digsby," fake player IDs, and a vague reference to provisions of the Patriot Act that supposedly justified the decision.
The sobbing teen you may have seen in the YouTube video is actually being convicted of murdering a baby he was supposed to be looking after.

The hoax article details were clearly enough to convince a broad audience of its authenticity. Since its publication, the article had 200,000 shares on Facebook and nearly 400 comments that roundly applaud the decision.

Add caption

Above: The article posted in the National Report about Paul Horner being convicted of Swatting used a picture that was actually from the sentencing for a murder conviction in an entirely different case.

Above: The actual event of sentencing was for Murder of a toddler the teen was supposed to babysit.

Swatting goes as far back as 2008 but seems to have come to the forefront of late as prankers take more risks to increase the ante on their victims livestreaming accounts. In fact recently Joshua Peters, a Runescape player was swatted live in front of 60,000 viewers, he then tried to make a video about the incident where he describes how Police pointed guns at his younger brother.

Above: Videogamer Joshua Peters just prior to being Swatted on his Runescape livestream channel.

The fact no-one has been seriously injured or killed either shows a superb example of the high level of training that SWAT teams undertake or perhaps it's just nothing but pure luck.

One to Watch: Jeff Lafferty

If like me you're a sucker for killer artwork or just love the whole creative process of drawing the traditional way via paint and pencil then here's an artist you might just like.
Jeff Lafferty is an American artist who's style isn't too far off Drew Struzan (Struzan did the original Raiders of the Lost Ark and Back to the Future movie posters).
Lafferty has a subdued manner to his YouTube videos when talking about his artwork and his process of working but makes up for the lack of media prowess with his stunning artwork. The use of colour, highlights and cross hatching make for addictive watching and he clearly loves his movie heroes. He does commission work too, so if you want one of your heroes drawn for a fee this guy could be a great choice to make that happen for you.

Check out Jeffs Blog here
His Deviant Art page here